Palliative Care Education - Anytime, Anywhere

Community-Based Palliative Care

Series of Ten Self-Paced Courses Announced

San Diego, CA – November 13, 2015csupalliativecare.org. The California State University Institute for Palliative Care is pleased to announce its innovative Organizational Roadmap to Community-Based Palliative Care. This comprehensive approach combines a process for successfully implementing a community-based palliative care program with all the tools, in the form of online courses and resources, needed for success. It is available for individual courses as well as a complete series. It was created by a team of national experts to put affordable, easy-to-use tools in the hands of community organizations that need them.

Palliative care, which focuses on relieving symptoms and improving quality of life for those with chronic, debilitating or life-threatening illnesses and their families, has traditionally been offered in inpatient hospital settings. Today, many community organizations are looking to expand their services with outpatient, clinic and home-based care models to support those needing palliative care.

“Leaders seeking to build a strong case for implementing community-based palliative care in their area can gain access to nationally recognized, practical yet state-of-the-art resources for every step in their planning and implementation process, or, they can access only the components they need using the Organizational Roadmap series,” says the Institute’s Executive Director, Helen McNeal. “The 10 self-paced, online courses are designed to support planning teams or individuals through each step of the planning and implementation process in their office and at their own pace.”

Courses included in the Roadmap series progress from free introductory overview of the Roadmap planning process through to courses on:

Understanding the models considered best practice

How to effectively conduct a needs assessment

Identifying potential partners

Defining operational foundations for quality measures and metrics

Establishing budgets, policies and procedures and billing processes

In addition, the Roadmap series addresses how to implement change that “sticks”, and educating and empowering patients, caregivers and the healthcare team to use palliative care, all essentials for successfully implementing a new service or integrating it into an existing organization.

This series is ideal for clinical and administrative leaders working in:

Health systems

Physician offices and clinics

Home health agencies

Hospices

Social service organizations

Accountable care organizations

Medical homes

Organizations interested in developing a program or partnering to provide community-based palliative care

“Implementing palliative care in a community setting can be challenging with limited reimbursement and demand that could readily exceed supply,” says McNeal. “Organizations must develop and implement plans that will optimize the chance for success. They must find good data, choose the right partners, identify the right measures and make a dynamic business case that is understood by leadership. It’s a tall order but the Organizational Roadmapseries is here to show them the way.”

Each of these will eventually have either CMEs or continuing education hours available for physicians, nurses, social workers, and selected other disciplines.

The CSU Institute for Palliative Care offers palliative care-focused professional development and continuing education courses designed to enhance the skills of current and future healthcare professionals across the country and around the world. Housed within one of the largest university systems in the United States, the Institute leverages the strength of the CSU to deliver evidence-based online and in-person palliative care education to healthcare professionals working in health systems, hospices, skilled nursing facilities, health plans, case management, and physician practices. The Institute helps organizations and professionals achieve the palliative care skills needed to meet the growing needs of chronically or seriously ill people in all care settings.